The Bears took the bait.
When Caleb Williams flashed his enormous talent and potential right out of the game, Chicago decided a playoff berth was possible, despite the fact that they’re now playing in the toughest division in football. The risks they took to make it happen seemed worthwhile given that they were briefly over .500, but the backlash has begun.
Williams took a beating in the Bears latest loss in Arizona, getting sacked six times as the Cardinals won going away, 29-9. At first glance the loss looks like a course correction for a team that was punching above its weight, but a closer look at what happened to Williams reveals plenty of systemic flaws. Those flaws are the reason coach Matt Eberflus is once again on the hot seat, and the rumor mill says he might even fire offensive coordinator Shane Waldron.
Chicago’s weak early schedule hid a lot of flaws
Every NFL coach whose team just drafted a franchise quarterback faces one overarching question: should the focus be on development or winning?
It’s never an easy question to answer, but sometimes the solutions are obvious. That’s definitely the case with Caleb Williams, who constantly veers from being a stellar playmaker to looking befuddled by many of the things he’s seeing on the other side of the ball.
The Bears did a decent job of juggling all this in during the first quarter of the season, but Chicago’s early schedule was soft. They won the games they were supposed to win, other than a problematic loss to the Colts when Williams turned the ball over three times.
The Bears still have to run the division gauntlet in the NFC North
But Chicago has been exposed in the last two weeks, and the schedule will get tougher sooner rather than later. The Bears have a home tilt this weekend against the hapless Patriots, who represent a get-right game for nearly every team on their schedule.
A win there would put Chicago back over .500, but that achievement might be fool’s gold. After that the Bears face a murderers row series of games against Green Bay, Minnesota and the Lions. Given the way Chicago played against Washington and Arizona, it’s hard to imagine this team emerging from that three-game stretch as legitimate playoff contenders.
Eberflus and Waldron are facing serious legitimate questions
Matt Eberflus is no stranger to the hot seat, and there have been times when it seems like he’s used up his nine coaching lives, especially after Chicago’s epic meltdown against Washington during the final Hail Mary pass. Eberflus let Williams play the last two minutes of the game behind an offensive line that was full of backups, which is beyond foolish. The quarterback got his ankle rolled, which surprised no one.
The coach’s justification for this was even sillier. He invoked the “fight to the end” coaching cliché, which might have been believable if Chicago had a functional offense. But they don’t, and that’s where Waldron’s role in all this comes into play.
Simply put, the Bears offense is awful. They can’t run the football—they’re currently 25th in the league—and their passing stats vary tremendously according to which version of Caleb Williams shows up. Against Arizona, Williams was operating behind a third-string left tackle and a right tackle who’d been promoted from the practice squad, so it wasn’t exactly hard to predict what would happen.
Protecting Caleb Williams this week should be the top priority
The short-term answers here are obvious. Protecting Caleb Williams should be Chicago’s top priority, and this week’s opponent gives them an opportunity to do just that. New England’s run defense has been a sieve—they were hammered by both Jacksonville and Tennessee with the game on the line, so the Bears game plan should be conservative to take advantage accordingly.
Beyond that, things get very murky in a hurry. Eberflus has been a “dead coach walking” for some time now, and there’s no reason to think he and Waldron can survive a three-game division losing streak. The end for this coaching tandem feels inevitable, but an in-season firing wouldn’t be the worst outcome if Caleb Williams emerges healthy and intact.